Climate change a real threat to Michigan birds

Question: What do Black Terns, Upland Sandpipers and Piping Plovers have in common? Answer: All are birds that are threatened or endangered according to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. Currently, there are 42 threatened species of birds in Michigan, with nine listed as endangered. As a member of the Great Lakes Audubon Club, I appreciate the significance of these DNR listings. I am also well aware of the importance of birds to our environment — not just in our Great Lakes region, but across the world too.

Birds are involved in nearly every ecosystem on the planet. They serve these planetary systems as pollinators, scavengers, seed dispersers, predators, and prey. Birds are vital to the network of connections within an ecosystem. They also function as early indicators of the earth’s environmental health. What is good for birds is good for entire ecological systems — which includes us. This is the main reason that I proudly display an Audubon bumper sticker that states, “Protect the Birds, We Protect the Earth.”

I know I am not alone. Many people actively appreciate and support birds. Birds provide us with inspirational beauty. Birds provide for the health of our earth by eating over 500 tons of insects yearly. Crows, vultures and Ravens are important scavengers keeping down the spread of disease. Pollinators, like the hummingbirds are vital to the diversity of the floral kingdom. In the United States alone birders, numbering in the tens of millions, will spend over twenty billion dollars per year on seed, travel and birding equipment.